World Goodwill

World View - Archive

We are living at a time when the vision of wholeness is seeping into consciousness, upsetting all sorts of established patterns of thinking, seeing and acting. As a species we are, perhaps for the first time in any collective sense, beginning to care about the good of the whole, noticing that the well-being of the individual unit in any system depends upon the well-being of the environment within which it is embedded. There are huge challenges in lifting our vision so as to see the patterns of synthesis and order in a whole system. Yet we are on the way, aware of the need to perceive forces of inter-dependence and the primary role of relationships between different entities in any system.

The “power to predict”, to imagine future possibilities and estimate their likelihood, has always been a salient feature of our species...Yet these complex processes of prediction or forecasting rely on the power of the concrete mind, and so are unable to penetrate into the realms of the higher mind and intuition, where the higher analogue of prediction, prophecy, resides.

It is often said that we currently live in a time of profound transition. The familiar mores and institutions of societies in every part of the world are being challenged in many ways. We could even say that global civilisation itself is undergoing transformation. This is the result of the growing potency of the human mind and its continual reaching out into the world of Ideas.

History shows that austere times can have the capacity to transform people and nations. As the current economic stringency is bringing hardship to so many, austerity is probably a word that few would view in a positive light.

Rapid communication networks, such a prominent feature of the information age, are an indication that dynamic processes are taking place in human consciousness. First and foremost among these is the rapid increase of intellectual capacity.